Gregg Popovich may reportedly be closer to retirement than expected

Those close to Gregg Popovich believe he will retire after coaching Team U.S.A. at the 2020 Summer Olympics, according to a new ESPN report.

Popcould even retire from the NBA as early as the end of next season.

Popovich has coached the Spurs for over 20 years and moulded San Antonio into one of the most successful franchises in the NBA in that time.

His future might also affect talks with the Spurs’ star player, Kawhi Leonard, over a contract extension.

In a report on Kawhi Leonard’s future with the San Antonio Spurs organisation, ESPN NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski dropped this interesting tidbit on the future of Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.

“Few in his orbit expect Popovich to coach the Spurs beyond the 2020 Summer Olympics, and there always has been the possibility that he could spend the 2019-20 season travelling the NBA and globe, preparing for his national team duties,” Wojnarowski wrote.

Popovich is almost universally regarded as the best coach in the NBA, and for a good reason. Since taking over as the San Antonio head coach in 1996, he has turned the small-market Spurs into one of the winningest franchises in the NBA, and a model of consistency.

But at 69-years-old, it is only natural that he would be considering retirement. Still, losing Popovich would be a big blow to the Spurs, as well as the NBA as a whole, due to the respect he commands across the league.

Wojnarowski also notes that Popovich’s future is “an interesting subplot” in the on-going Kawhi Leonard saga.

“Popovich wants to coach Leonard for the rest of his Spurs tenure,” Wojnarowski wrote, and the two are set to meet soon to try and repair a relationship that has become fractured during Leonard’s recovery from a quadriceps injury, and determine Leonard’s future with the team.